Tool Time

These are the random things Mason does during the day with his sister. I suppose there isn't any other use for those back pockets.

Candy made of gold?

I've been starting to plan Reese's 1st birthday. I have always had in mind that I wanted to do a pink themed party. I know it's popular for a little girls party, but I don't want anything too commercial. Anyway, I thought a bowl of pink M & M's would be perfect and I knew they did personal messages on them too. So I went to their website. They make you buy a minimum of three 7 oz bags for a grand total of....$55 (with shipping and tax). I couldn't believe it. I could only imagine getting so uptight while I watched people eating my VERY expensive candy. I'm pretty sure I can find a cheaper pink candy for the table!

Sticking to it!

I figured if I blogged about it I would be more likely to stay with my diet and exercise. I have totally slacked the last 4 months. I got burnt out, big time. I started dieting last August when I saw pictures of myself from Reese's blessing. I went on to lose 45 pounds in 4 months. I took a couple weeks off around Christmas. I thought I would get right back on it the first of the year but no such luck. I tried, and tried and tried. In that time of "trying", I managed to gain back 9 pounds! YIKES! So, I decided to switch gyms and get back on Weight Watchers. Our family joined the YMCA. So far I LOVE it. Mason loves the Adventure Zone. Reese hated the daycare. On the first day, I was paged 20 minutes into my workout to come and get her. She ended up getting sick that night so she hasn't been back yet (thank you mom for watching her). My goal is to try and go 5 to 6 times a week. Last week I went Mon, Tues, and Weds, until my mastitis was so bad I couldn't go. I felt like the biggest failure. I mean, my first week and I get sick! Stupid!! Anyway I stuck to my diet last week perfectly and never cheated! It totally paid off, I lost 5.2 pounds last week. So....this is what I'll be doing every day until I like what I see. I'm 15 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight and about 35 pounds away from my ultimate goal. I seriously hope I can do it!

I'm suffering...

from mastitis! This is a result from the previous post. To much information? Too bad. It has consumed my thoughts for the past 24 hours and I finally figured it out today when I had flu like symptoms (along with the most painful symptom of mastitis). My Dr is calling in an antibiotic to heal it. I'm hoping it works super fast. Sorry, no pictures for this post (could you imagine..LOL)

Tell me about it...

I'm weaning Reese. This is pretty much how we both feel.

Summer in April

What an amazing day we had in Seattle yesterday. We thought it was going to be around 70, but at our house it reached over 80 degrees! Needless to say it was perfect! Derek had practice in the morning then took Mason to the field to do some work. Later that evening, we went to Juanita Beach. It was hard to believe it was April. Mason had fun playing in the sand and playing on the playground. Reese had her first experience eating sand and it didn't seem to faze her. I loved having them wear shorts and short sleeved shirts. It's been a LONG winter and it was so nice to see a little piece of summer.

On the way home from the beach we stopped at Dairy Queen. Reese loves ice cream and eventually I had to take her out because she was yelling so loud for more. Mason loves banana "spwits" and got his very own. It was such a great day, the kids were gems at the beach, which always makes going out so much better!

Ready to Read

For the last couple months I've been teaching Mason how to read. I bought the same book that my mom had when she taught my little brother how to read 16 years ago. I had no idea how fast and effective it would be. I love that he looks forward to "school" everyday and sounds out the letters that he sees through out his day. Last night we decided that we should get him on tape. I'm extremely proud of him and in his interest to learn. There are some letters that are harder than others but I think he has caught on very quickly. I'm putting these on especially for grandparents and great grandparents. This is not intended to be a "brag" post either. I feel if my child can do it, any child can!





This is just a little bit of what he can read. He has most three letter words down. It is such a huge accomplishment for him and myself. I am so glad I stuck with it!!

Where's Jack?

I was going to do this clever post to say goodbye to Jack, but I didn't. Kacey and Dan had a really bad trip home so I kind of put off posting. They missed their connection after they went through customs in North Carolina. They were flown to New Jersey to catch an early Sunday morning flight and had to sleep on the floor of the airport (yuck). Then, while the plane was boarding they found out that they didn't have assigned seats, but were on standby and only Kacey got on the flight home. Dan got on another flight out of Boston and made it home late Sunday night (they were suppose to be home Saturday night). Oh and only 1 of 3 bags made it home. Sorry guys!!

Anyway, it's nice to back to a routine this week, but Mason had a lot of fun with his cousin and is still asking when Jack is going to come back! I don't even have any pictures from his last days here..sorry!! So now it's back to our boring life. Hopefully I didn't burn myself out from posting 8 days straight.

Day 8 - Cousins and McDonald's

Today we drove out to Monroe to visit my sister-in-law Kammy (my brother Graham's wife) and her kids. Her boys are on spring break, so they had fun playing with Trevor. The little ones played good together, although Mason wanted to play with the "big" boys today. Jack and Mason were really into the Nintendo DS's that Griffin and Nolan were so nice to to share! Reese and Murphy (5 weeks apart) were so cute to watch - they actually played really good together. They also had McDonald's again today for lunch! Lucky kids!!











They all fell asleep on the way home and then immediately woke up when I got them out of their car seats (of course). Thanks for having us over today Kammy!! We had a lot of fun!! Kacey- Jack and Trevor are really excited to see you guys tomorrow! Have a safe trip home!!!

Day 7 - Trevor, Trains and Throw Up

Yes...I said throw up! That can never be good with three kids 3 and under. This is how it went down. I went to go pick up Trever (my nephew & Kacey's stepson) from the crosswalk after school today. Today was the first day I have him and he will be with us until Saturday when Kacey and Dan come home. Anyway, while we were waiting for him, Jack said that his back hurt. I looked back and he was totally green and sweaty. Before I could get out to see what was wrong he started to throw up. I got out quickly and got some clothes out of the diaper bag to catch it and clean him up. Trevor was walking up right when this was happening. I stripped Jack down to cool him down and get his dirty clothes off of him. All I could think of was Kacey and how she's going to want to come home and not want her boy to be sick and tons of other things...like why did his back hurt? Anyway, he sat their green all the way home (throwing up one more time). I called my mom and told her and she said kids will often say something else hurts when they are about to throw up not knowing why they feel the way they do (make sense?). So we got home and cleaned him up better and got him some water. Not even 5 minutes later he was totally back to his old self. I was so relieved. I'm still going to keep an eye on him, but he has shown no more signs of being sick. I'm thinking that maybe he got over heated or car sick?? He had woken up about 10 seconds before we left the house and I put a sweatshirt on him (he was already sweaty from his nap). I'm hoping that is all it is!! Anyway, these pictures were taken about 10 minutes after we got home. As you can see he is back to his old self!! Oh, and he LOVES having his big brother here!!

Top 500

I had blogged yesterday about Reesie making the Top 500 in the Baby Idol contest (see an older post here and here). I deleted it because the website was being so lame and I was so frustrated that I gave up. Until I went back later in the day and they said that they were extending the voting for another day because of the problems they were having. So....if you'd like to vote for my sweet little Reese you can go HERE (movin925.com), and click on the Baby Idol logo. Find the babies N-Z box and click on it. Then scroll down past all the baby pictures to the list of names and find Reese B. 9months (their are two other Reese's that are pretty cute too). Voting is till tomorrow morning at 9am PST. I'm not trying to irritate you, just letting you know! Especially those that really do want to vote for her :)



Thanks again!

Day 6 - Games and a Walk

Today was kind of a slow day for us. We should have got out of the house earlier in the day, but I was too busy trying to vote for Reese in the Baby Idol contest. The website was down for more than half the day, I was so frustrated and kind of neglected the kids. They punished me by fighting...over everything. We got through the morning and after Jack's and Reese's afternoon nap we went on a walk and then to the neighborhood park. They were super good on the walk, I should have done it earlier in the day. We didn't stay out long because it was freezing. Here are some pictures from our day. Hopefully we'll have a more eventful day tomorrow!





I spared you the picture of them fighting over one of those pieces to the game. Seriously, there are about 50 little square pieces and they HAD to have the same one! They are so competitive!!!








I love this last picture of them. Jack had a good day today Kacey! I'm sure he's ready to have Trevor with us for the next few day!!

Day 5 - The Mall and a Pretzel

I decided to venture out today. I took the kids (alone) to the Alderwood Mall to play on the toys. The kids were actually really good and Mason was so big walking with me the whole time and not running away. He must be getting older! They loved playing on the new toys at the mall. I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed taking pictures of the kids. I wouldn't normally take pictures there, but I wanted Kacey to see Jack playing. I'm sure the other moms were making fun me! When we were done, we met my mom and her sister Laurie for lunch in the food court. The boys were really good today, I'm so glad we got out!





I was surprised that Mason and Jack would stay near each other. If one would go to another toy the other would follow. I'm kind of paranoid at those places that some perv is going to steal my kid, so it made it easy to watch them when they were close to each other. I put Reese down for about 10 seconds until some kid almost trampled her (I'm pretty sure it was Mason), so I held her the whole time. It's really not geared for crawlers. She had fun yelling at the boys.

Both boys know they always get a pretzel when we go to the mall!

All in all I think they had a fun day! Not as much fighting today either, which always makes for a good day!